The Labyrinth
I've never been good at magic.
That's the first thing anyone ever learns about me at the Coven of Orialis. While other girls summon sparks with a whisper or levitate petals in the air, I can barely make a candle flicker. My master says he sees potential in me, but I think he only says that out of pity.
Every evening, after the lessons end and the corridors empty, I return home and cry myself to sleep. The tears come before I can stop them — a quiet, bitter reminder that I'm not enough. My parents try to encourage me, but their words always carry the weight of disappointment. In our world, a witch without her channel is like a bird without wings.
They call me names — dead flame, silent wand, empty vessel. I try to laugh it off, but each insult chips away at me until there's barely anything left.
And yet, when I sleep… everything changes.
In my dreams, I am someone else, powerful, radiant, loved. I walk through a realm of shimmering light and winding paths that seem endless and alive. There, I can channel effortlessly. Magic flows through me like breath. I called that place the Labyrinth. My Labyrinth.
But the Labyrinth wasn't always just a dream.
Seven Years Ago
I was nine when the invasion happened.
That day started like any other, a long morning at the school of witchery, frustration gnawing at me because I still couldn't levitate a single flower from the ground. My only comfort was Casi, a girl of six who was everything I wasn't. She was sweet, gifted, and bright — a prodigy. People loved her. And she loved me, even when the others turned away.
We were playing near the field when it happened.
First came the feeling, a strange tightening in my chest, like the world had stopped. I knew something terrible was about to happen, though I couldn't explain how. I tried to warn everyone, shouting for them to leave the field, but no one listened. No one ever listened to me.
So I grabbed Casi's hand and ran. Seconds later, the ground erupted behind us. The explosion roared like a thousand screams, fire and smoke swallowing the air. Cries filled the field, children hurt, some without limbs, some too shocked to move. I remember the smell of ash, the taste of fear.
"Dana, how did you know?" Casi asked, trembling.
"I—I don't know," I stammered. "I just did."
Then came the invaders, tall men in dark armour, their eyes glowing faintly beneath their helmets. They stormed the field, seizing children with power strong enough to be useful. The sages of the coven fought bravely, hurling fire and wind, but chaos ruled the air.
Casi and I hid in the coven's chamber, my heart pounding so loudly I thought it would give us away.
"We can't just hide!" Casi whispered fiercely.
"Be quiet! Please, someone might hear us!" I begged.
Someone did hear us.
A heavy shadow filled the doorway, one of the invaders. He saw us instantly. Casi's hands glowed as she tried to form a barrier around us, a shimmering bubble of light. It flickered, then cracked under his touch.
"Dana, help me! Channel something! Anything!" she cried.
But nothing came. I screamed and reached deep inside myself, but my magic, the thing that was supposed to make me a witch, betrayed me again.
The barrier shattered.
He grabbed Casi, and before I could even move, they were gone. Just like that. He didn't bother taking me, he said something like "Useless" under his breath and walked away.
I remember standing there, shaking, staring at the empty doorway. I wanted to burn the world down in that moment. But I couldn't even light a spark.
Later, when the battle ended and the names of the missing were read aloud, I heard hers.
Casi.
I fell to the ground and cried until my throat hurt. The guilt wrapped around me like chains. I kept thinking, if only I'd been stronger. If only I'd fought. If only…
When I got home that night, I said nothing to my parents. I just went to bed and wept until I drifted into sleep. And that was the first night I saw it... "The Labyrinth" the place that welcomed me when the real world never did.
It was beautiful, gold vines, rivers of light, people who smiled when they saw me. There, I wasn't weak. I was a queen. I was everything I always wished to be in the real world.
Present Day
Today, I turned sixteen.
No celebration, no friends, just my mother, father, and the quiet hum of disappointment that always lingers around me. Seven years have passed since the invasion, but I still see Casi's face every time I close my eyes.
The sages never found her or the others who were taken. Some say they're dead; others whisper that the invaders turned them into weapons. But I can't believe that. I won't.
"I have to find Casi," I told myself this morning. My voice trembled, but the resolve in it surprised me. Maybe I am weak when I'm awake, but when I sleep, when I'm in the Labyrinth, i'm powerful. And perhaps that's where my answers lie.
Maybe the Labyrinth isn't just a dream after all.
Maybe… it's calling me back.